DRIVER, 17, KILLS CROSSING GUARD AT GRADE SCHOOL.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen and Jason Kandel Staff Writers

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - A 17-year-old motorist who said he was blinded by the rising sun fatally hit a 60-year-old crossing guard Tuesday as parents and students at Lankershim Elementary School watched in horror.

William Hooper of Tujunga had just helped a child cross Magnolia Boulevard and had returned to the sidewalk at Magnolia and Bakman Avenue when the teen's blue Dodge Colt station wagon suddenly jumped the curb and ran into the guard, said Detective Bill Bustos of the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Traffic Division.

``I couldn't believe what I saw,'' said Spring Astorga, a North Hollywood resident who witnessed the tragedy with her 5-year-old daughter. ``All of a sudden, there was a bang and his body was flying away.''

Neighborhood residents said they have petitioned the city for several years to install a signal at the busy intersection, where drivers are regularly blinded by the sun. But city officials told them no funds were available.

The driver, whom police would not identify because he is a juvenile, was driving eastbound on Magnolia at 7:20 a.m. when his car veered off the road, police said. After hitting Hooper, he rammed into the side of a building, a street light and then a small tree, with the guard briefly pinned on the hood of his car.

Hooper was transported to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Hooper's death marks the second time a city crossing guard has been hit and killed by a motorist in seven years, said Rudy Carrasco, deputy chief for the city's Bureau of Parking Enforcement, which employs 450 crossing guards.

In that case, the driver also claimed to be blinded by the sun, Carrasco said. A signal has since been installed at the intersection, which is in the city's Rampart area.

On Tuesday, the teen's parents said he was grieving over Hooper's death.

``He's very shaken,'' said the boy's stepmother, Launa Hunt, who received a call from him immediately after the crash. ``When he called me, it didn't even sound like my son. He was devastated. He said it was bad. It can't be real.''

The teen, who is home-schooled and works as a service clerk at a restaurant and office supply store, had just dropped off his 12-year-old brother at nearby Walter Reed Middle School when the crash occurred.

``The sun hit his eyes and he couldn't see,'' Hunt said. ``He caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, and swerved to the right, but it was too late, he hit something. He believed he hit a light pole and a tree. He didn't think he hit a person at all.''

Within minutes of the crash, the boy's father rushed to the scene.

``This is something you only see on TV. You do not think it could happen to you. Another person's gone. I feel so bad for this,'' said the father, who declined to give his name.

Though detectives said the teen is at fault, it will be up to the District Attorney's Office to decide whether charges will be filed against the youth, said Detective Ron White of the Valley Traffic Division.

The crash remained under investigation Tuesday.

Meanwhile, residents in the neighborhood expressed outrage over the death.

``He was a great man,'' said Kevin Harris, a North Hollywood resident whose child attended Lankershim Elementary. ``The bottom line is we need a light out here. We've known this is a dangerous crossing. It's got a very blinding effect. When the sun is coming up or down, you're blinded.''

Crossing guard Wilbert Tavera, who sometimes works the intersection, called it among the worst he's ever seen.

``It's too wide of a street. You show the stop sign, and they don't respect it,'' he said.

Hooper had worked for the city for 1 1/2 years as an alternate crossing guard, who like other guards made about $9 an hour. He was filling in for another guard and had only worked at Lankershim for about three weeks.

Friends and co-workers mourned his death.

``He was a gentle man,'' said his best friend, B.E. Scroggins of Granada Hills, as he waited in the hospital for family members to arrive.

The two served together in the Civil Air Patrol. After 30 years of service, Hooper continued teaching basic aviation skills to cadets at the Civil Air Patrol, Glendale Squadron 27.

Born in York, Penn., Hooper joined the Navy and the Air Force, where he ran flight simulators to train pilots during the Vietnam War, Scroggins said.

After working 25 years at Burbank Water and Power, Hooper retired in 1997 and later became a crossing guard, so he could work with children, his friends said. He had no children of his own.

Tony Zebrasky, an engineering technician who worked alongside Hooper in Burbank, said his buddy attacked everything he did with gusto. The turning point for Hooper, Zebrasky said, was suffering an aneurysm in the mid-1990s that nearly took his life.

``That rang a bell for him,'' Zebrasky said. ``He said he didn't want to die on the job, he wanted to die doing what we he liked to do. And I think he did that since he was working with kids.''

Staff Writer Sylvia Oliande contributed to this story.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) An LAPD officer, left, is framed by the broken windshield of a car that struck and killed crossing guard William Hooper in North Hollywood. Above, Los Angeles Department of Transportation Lead Crossing Guard Doris Zakkak is comforted by supervisor Sgt. William Flores after learning of Hooper's death.

(3 -- 4) William Hooper, left, was hit by a car and killed while working as a crossing guard at a North Hollywood elementary school. Below, an LAPD officer marks evidence at the scene, near the corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Bakman Avenue.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

Map: Crossing guard killed